5 Tips for Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce

Bring People Together and Set the Tone for Trust

When teams have diverse perspectives and experience levels, it often means people don't have much in common with each other. Create opportunities for people to build relationships and trust, and the ability to confidently communicate with each other. These are essential to high-performing teams – but they rarely happen spontaneously or naturally when there is high diversity. When the organization's leaders demonstrate inclusion and communicate well, their teams follow suit.

Diversity of employee experience and contexts improves companies, products and customer experience. Rarely do the best results flow from consensus without challenge or debate. For organizations transforming themselves, the combination of long-tenure experienced workers and digitally savvy employees less committed to status quo or legacy process makes effective change possible. While it requires leaders to span, consider and balance that diversity continuously, that's all part of agile, effective leadership.

The workforce and ways of working are in the midst of an epic transition. By 2020, millennials will comprise 46 percent of the workforce, which creates an unusual "barbell" of late-retiring boomers and more digital savvy young people. Rarely is it necessary to work opposite ends of a spectrum at the same time, but it's essential now. Add in the challenges of retaining talent, and it's imperative for leaders and managers to be more aware and more skillful.

If your organization is transforming markets or transforming itself, millennials can be a tremendous boon. In general, they bring four transformative attitudes and attributes to the workforce: They are 1) digitally savvy, 2) ready for change, 3) mission focused, and 4) transparency biased. What's more, 29 percent of entrepreneurs today are millennials, so engage them in building your business or they'll build their own.

Having said that, their fresh ideas and attitudes don't always come with operating experience or high self awareness. High energy and low experience can frustrate more seasoned and efficient colleagues. To tap the full skill set and mindshare of your mixed workforce to increase your business's agility and accelerate results and digital transformation, you'll likely need more agile management approaches and new communication tools – your management approach shouldn't be older than the people you manage! In this slideshow, Deidre Paknad, CEO of Workboard, has identified tips that can help you engage and enable today's workforce.

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